After numerous delays caused by licensing issues, music streaming service Spotify launched in the U.S. on July 14, 2011 with support from all four major labels and a variety of independents. Much like Rdio and Google Music, Spotify represents a move towards the cloud and portability of music across multiple platforms.
An iTunes-Style Interface
While the Spotify application can function as a traditional media player for files already stored on a user's PC, its main utility lies in its streaming functions. The company's tagline "All the music, all the time" may be a slight exaggeration, since certain artists and songs are currently unavailable due to licensing issues, but Spotify still offers a vast selection of music across all genres.
The application itself strongly resembles iTunes, and the familiarity of the interface makes it easy to start using Spotify immediately. The pane on the left contains most of the program's main options, including quick access to your music library, to locally stored tracks only (or just tracks from Windows Media Player and iTunes libraries), and playlists.
On the right, a Facebook friends panel replaces iTunes' Ping sidebar. You don't have to connect your Spotify account to Facebook, but if you do, you can view playlists made by friends who are also using Spotfiy and share tracks with them. Spotify also offers more generalized sharing through posting to your Facebook wall or Twitter account, or sending a track directly to another Spotify user or through Windows Live Messenger.
Free vs. Premium
The basic streaming features are available for free, but with the downside that playback is periodically interrupted by advertisements. A $4.99 monthly plan removes the ads, while mobile support requires the Spotify Premium plan, at a cost of $9.99 a month. Currently, Spotify is offering unlimited streaming for free plan users in the U.S. for the first six months, but limitations will kick in after that time (Spotify hasn't yet revealed those limits).
The streaming playback is instantaneous, and in testing on a cable modem connection tracks played back without any interruptions for loading. For the statistics-minded, Spotify also integrates with Last.fm for scrobbling tracks.
Not Quite "All The Music, All The Time" Yet
Unfortunately, there are some gaps in Spotify's U.S. library. Some major artists, including The Beatles and Pink Floyd, are missing entirely due to their ownership of rights to their material. Given how long it took for The Beatles' catalog to come to iTunes, it's likely to take a while before they negotiate deals with any streaming services.
There are also instances where individual tracks from albums are unavailable, or where multiple versions of a specific album show up in Spotify's lists. There are also some inaccuracies in track tags, which are based on information supplied by the individual labels.
Search Features
Spotify's search features could also use some refinement. While it's easy to search for an individual artist or album, there's no option to search by genre, or to browse artists in a specific genre. The only online browsing Spotify offers outside of the library view is a "What's New" pane listing the latest additions (fairly limited at launch) and a "Top Lists" pane showing the most popular albums and tracks.
The search results themselves, in contrast, are well-organized and detailed. If an artist biography is available on All Music Guide, it's accessible from the search results, and Spotify also pulls up extensive lists of related artists. A thumnail view shows the top search results, and clicking on an album cover takes you straight to it. It's a highly intuitive design that encourages exploration and clicking on related links.
Mobile Support
Spotify also supports iPods in addition to mobile phones, though its automatic sync feature requires you to erase the current contents of your device to sync it with Spotify. There's also an offline play mode available for both the desktop and mobile apps with the Premium membership for those times when an Internet connection isn't available.
Though the initial release has its flaws, Spotify already works exceptionally well as a desktop streaming application, and its mobile support offers the promise of freeing users from physical music collections entirely. It's one of the most reliable and simplest streaming options to date, and will only improve as more music becomes available.
Paul Brown - Paul Ferrell Brown graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1994 with a B.A. in English literature, and completed his M.A. in ...
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